Howard: Accused of opportunism

Michael Howard has been criticised after linking the possibility of race riots to public confidence in the immigration system.

The Conservative leader told ITV1's 'Ask the leaders' programme that he feared there could be repeats of the 2001 riots in Burnley and Oldham unless the public had confidence in controls on immigration.

"I think that people have to have confidence in the system... they have to understand that there is a proper system of controls and that gives people reassurance," he said.

"And I think that when people believe that... immigration is out of control I think that feeds anxieties and I think that makes it more difficult to have good community relations."

But Howard rejected suggestions he was directly warning of violence unless controls are tightened.

"I wouldn't quite put it in terms of a warning, what I say though is that if we are... to make sure that we are to have good community relations, if we are to have a grip on security and if we are to manage effectively our public services for all those three reasons we have to have controlled and limited immigration," the Conservative leader said.

Core vote

At a press conference on Tuesday morning, Charles Kennedy accused Howard of using asylum to appeal to his party's core vote rather than wanting a sensible debate on the issue.

"I'm not aware of any mainstream political party in British politics that hasn't argued for a system of controlled immigration," said the Liberal Democrat leader.

"To try and use that phrase as if everybody else would just let the borders of our country go to pigs and whistles and only the Conservatives care about controlled immigration is a complete misrepresentation of the case.

"I think that is not because the Conservatives want a perfectly responsible and sensible discussion about immigration policy.

"I think it's because they are trying to appeal to a core vote at this stage of the campaign... at the exclusion of a sensible discussion."

Speaking at a Labour press conference, Tony Blair accepted that immigration "was an issue for people".

The prime minister said that "the only long term solution is identity cards".

He rejected "some arbitrary system of quotas because I don't think that is in the country's interests".

And Blair cautioned that the issues "need to be handled with care".